Herron School of Art and Design will host Packet Switcher, an exhibition of recent projects by artist, designer and programmer Owen Mundy. The exhibition opens in the Robert B. Berskhire, Eleanor Prest Reese and Dorit and Gerald Paul Galleries on February 27 with a lecture by Mundy at 6:00 p.m. There will be a reception immediately following from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Packet Switcher runs through April 13.

Mundy is an assistant professor of art at Florida State University. He earned an M.F.A. degree in Visual Art from the University of California, San Diego and a B.F.A. degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He’s a founder of Your Art Here http://yourarthere.org, an art organization that creates venues where art and ideas can be expressed freely through the use of billboards and other public spaces. In 2009 he created Give Me My Data http://givememydata.com, an online application that helps people get their data out of Facebook in reusable formats.

Packet Switcher contains a survey of recent and never before exhibited works. The individual pieces are varied; from dystopian visualizations of anonymous network data, to custom software which generates print resolution tests from news images. Owing to the increasingly decentralized models of artistic and cultural practice, as well as new forms of authorship like crowdsourcing, this exhibition features numerous collaborative projects with Mundy and other artists including Joelle Dietrick, Ryan Boatright, The Periscope Project, and Commodify, Inc.

The exhibition title references the process used to move digital communication by breaking files into smaller, faster blocks, or packets, of data. The packets travel through networks via the quickest available route and are reassembled at their destination. A digital photograph, for example, might be broken into several packets, each of which may travel through a different city before delivery.
Through a similar process, the artists underscore how incidental fragmentation and automation can streamline markets, but also make them vulnerable to systems failure. The use of architectural images points to recent real estate market volatility and considers how the technology-enabled pursuit of profit alters basic needs.

As a U.S. Navy photographer, Mundy observed militarism’s effect on cultures, sites and bodies. These experiences became an important influence on his work.

Also opening on February 27 and continuing through March 19 in the Marsh Gallery will be an exhibition of new works by Herron faculty members Ray Duffey and Marc Jacobson, and in the Basile Gallery, an exhibition of new works by Herron faculty member Stephanie Doty.

Limited parking is available in the Sports Complex Garage just west of Herron. Park in the visitor side of the garage and bring your ticket to the Herron Galleries for validation. Complimentary parking courtesy of The Great Frame Up. Parking in the surface lot next to Herron School of Art and Design requires a valid IUPUI parking permit at all times.

Rob Bullock
Assistant to the Dean
External Affairs & Development Specialist
Herron School of Art and Design
IUPUI – HR 224
735 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317-278-9470
Fax: 317-278-9471

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on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 6:12 am and is filed under exhibitions.
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